Woman in hot water after sharing bank information

A St Ann woman was brought before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court yesterday to answer to fraud-related charges.

Jessie-Ann Henry was initially charged by the police for obtaining money by false pretence, to which she pleaded not guilty. However, her explanation to Senior Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague saw her being slapped with another charge. The allegations are that the complainant intended to purchase an iPhone from an Instagram store, for which Henry pretended to be the vendor. However, Henry denied that she was the vendor who collected $35,000 from the complainant.

"I loaned by account information to someone I considered my friend. He asked me to borrow my account because he said someone was to send him money for his mom. He doesn't have an NCB (National Commercial Bank) account and he said he wanted the money immediately. He has a Scotia [bank account] and he said if the person sent it to the Scotia account, it would take at least three to five days to get the money," Henry told the court.

"What is his name? Where is he from? Do you have a telephone number for him?" the judge quizzed. Henry answered the questions and further said that she had shared his information with investigators.

The prosecutor informed Henry that she was being charged with facilitating the commissioning of an offence, to which she pleaded guilty.

She also made compensation of $35,000 to the complainant and conditions were added to her bail. She is to surrender her travel documents and a stop order was imposed. Her fingerprints were to be taken by the police as well. Henry is scheduled to return to court on November 25 for sentencing.